A Walking Tour of Paris

Paris! Amanda and I had a whole day to wander around Paris, and by golly, that’s exactly what we did. First we headed out on the subway towards the Arc de Triumph. But before we stopped to visit there, I had one small task to accomplish: I needed to get myself a trekking pole. In my hustle to leave the states, I forgot my trekking pole. Every person on a trek must have a trekking pole. So we hit up a local outfitters where we nabbed a pole for 9.95 euros.
Then we visited the Arc de Triumph. We didn’t pay to go to the top. Stupid lines and all, and the view of it is much better from under it than on top of it. =) But we wandered around it taking photos.
And then it was off to the Eiffel Tower to take some more photos. Originally, I wasn’t planning to go up it—it would probably be much more expensive than I’d care to do and the lines would likely be horrendous, but as it turns out, you’re allowed to climb up the stairs as high as the second level! Here’s the thing about the stairs: That option cost just 5 euros, and once you started, you never had to stand in line again. And the line for the stairs was relatively short—perhaps a half-hour wait.
Amanda had absolutely no interest in climbing the tower—she’d been up there before—so she planned to wait at the bottom while I climbed up. Going up to the second level was equivalent to climbing the staircase of a 42-story building, according to the literature they posted. (I had to laugh when one of them asked if you’d ever walked up a building so high. As a matter of fact, yes—I’ve hiked up a staircase that took me up more than 70 stories of the Columbia Tower in Seattle!)
The views were fantastic, but it was quite crowded. I didn’t linger for long before heading down another leg of the tower back to the base where I met up with Amanda again.
We stopped for lunch at a sidewalk café. Not much to write about there. The food wasn’t all that good and was way overpriced, but that’s what you’d expect near such a huge tourist attraction. *shrug*
Amanda wanted to ride a boat, so we got tickets for a boat ride along the Seine River which took us around to near Notre Dame. That place was insanely crowded—it made the crowds around the Eiffel Tower look like nothing, so we didn’t bother going inside. We wandered over a bridge of locks to take photos, and we saw a film shoot going on. Amanda was pretty excited about that—one guy was packing a gun (not something, it seems, that’s generally allowed in France?) and another had pads on his elbows and there was a mat on the ground. “They’re going to do a stunt!” Amanda exclaimed. She also criticized the craft services table—her expertise in the film business including stocking the craft services table. We have no idea what they were filming for, but Amanda said none of them were stars she had ever seen which means, obviously, they just weren’t stars. =)
While looking for Nancy Drew books in French being peddled, she completely missed the one actual Nancy Drew book that *I* spotted. Amanda was pretty excited about that. A new Nancy Drew book! In a language she couldn’t read! In fact, she wasn’t even sure which Nancy Drew book it was, except the title suggested it had something to do with ghosts or spirits.
And finally, we wandered back to the hotel, with sore feet an exhausted. It was a long day….

Thanks to Kurious Jo and BriarRabbtz for sponsoring Amanda and I in the WTA Hike-a-Thon! I’ll try to get some regular posts out about my hike along the Camino (125 km so far and counting!), but my wi-fi connections are limited. Especially since I’m usually camping out in the woods in the middle of nowhere. =)

Looking down from the first level of the Eiffel Tower.

There’s even a Statue of Liberty visible from the top!

Amanda looks for French Nancy Drew books

Notre Dame in Paris

Thousands and thousands of locks are attached to this bridge.

A view from the backside of Notre Dame

The Highs and Lows of Paris!

August 9: Amanda and I have arrived in Paris! We flew first class, and we had a little scare shortly after takeoff that we’d have to go back to Philly when a flight attendant announced on the intercom if there was a doctor on board. “That’s not good,” I said to Amanda.

There was a doctor on board, however, and happily, we did not return to Philly. Apparently, someone’s ear started leaking blood as we gained altitude, and while I’m sure that can’t be good, but apparently it wasn’t a big enough problem to go back. (As an aside, it’s generally not a good idea to fly if you’re sick or congested for just this reason. Your ears need to pop without blood coming out of them!)

We arrived this morning, took a bus to our hotel, and stored our bags. We arrived at the hotel hours before we were allowed to check in, but they were willing to store our bags until we could check in.
What to do? What to do? Mostly, we just needed to kill some time. The Catacombs, which are about half a mile from our hotel, seemed like a nice place to visit. We wandered over where a long line had already formed. We weren’t even sure if they were open yet, and they weren’t, but we arrived about fifteen minutes before opening time—but already, hundreds of people had already lined up. It was a way to kill time, at the very least. =)

The catacombs contain bones from about six million people. It’s a staggering number of dead people. These people have been dead for a long, long time. Apparently, hundreds of years ago, the dead that they buried in graveyards in Paris were polluting the water, so they started digging up all of the graves and chucking them into abandoned quarries under Paris. Six million in all. The bones were dug up and send here in the 1700 and 1800s.

The line started moving by 10:00 in the morning when the catacombs finally opened, but the line didn’t move fast. In fact, it moved remarkably slow. I’m still a little surprised at how slow that line moved, and we ended up standing in it for two HOURS before we finally got in. The wait was pretty boring. I had my Kindle and read most of the time. Amanda, shockingly, brought nothing to read. The fool. *shaking head* She went off and bought postcards to buy and write. =)

Closer to the entrance, a man worked on cutting out silhouettes for folks waiting in line. A silhouette, which would be done in less than two minutes, would cost just three euros. That man was raking in the cash. He had a captive audience where watching him was the highlight of waiting in line. Neither Amanda nor I posed for a silhouette, but we took pictures of everyone who was doing them. =)

Inside the catacombs, we learned they were haunted, and I have the photos to PROVE IT! There’s not really much to say about them, though. It’s really more of a visual experience where pictures really are worth a thousand words. Piles and piles of bones—million of them—decoratively build up as walls and all the other bones were thrown behind them.

The catacombs are so very awesome, though. If you’re ever in Paris, they’re well worth the visit. (If you do visit, however, I’d recommend trying to get there a lot earlier than we did so you don’t end up waiting around in line for two hours.)

By the time we finished, it was time to check in for our hotel. We stopped briefly to pick up some lunch on our way back to the hotel, then we crashed and took a quick nap. Amanda had only slept for an hour or so on the flight out. I did better with a solid five hours of sleep, but that was on top of a three-hour sleep the night before and lack of sleep was catching up with me as well.

We finally got up again in the late afternoon and headed to the tallest building around—Montparnasee Tower. We had explored the dark underbelly of Paris deep underground. Now it was time to explore it from its highest viewpoint! Most people would rush off to the Eiffel Tower, but we knew what we were doing. This building offered a better view OF the Eiffel Tower, and it was cheaper and had shorter lines to boot. Frankly, it’s pretty much better in every way than going up the Eiffel Tower itself. Just like going up the Columbia Tower in Seattle is really the better deal than going up the Space Needle.

And we hung out there to watch the sunset and the lights of the Eiffel Tower go on. The views were spectacular—they let you go all the way up onto the 56th floor and the roof of the building for 360 degree views. Absolutely wonderful!

And now it’s late at night and time to get a real night of sleep. We’ve got a big day for tomorrow!

Thanks, Trekkie Gal, for sponsoring me in the Hike-a-Thon! None of the hikes we did today will count towards our total, but I'll be starting the Camino in just a few more days!

I pose next to a large pile of human bones. We weren’t allowed to use
a flash in these areas, though, so the photos aren’t all that great.

Amanda hasn’t realized it, but a ghost is about to grab her!
See the rows of skulls in the bones behind her? It looked like
most of the bones in the front that made the decorative wall
are femurs lined with skulls. Presumably, the rest of the
bones from the body are thrown in behind the wall.

Oh, yes, she’s definitely a gonner now….

If bones could talk, the stories these ones could tell….Amanda caught this photo of a ghost wandering the catacombs….

I take a close look at the bones. Like my baldish head? =)

Getting out of the catacombs requires climbing up
83 steps of a narrow, spiral staircase.
Amanda was greatly amused to find a defibrillator
at the top of the “hike.” I thought she might
need it, but she managed to pull through okay…

We’ve been seeing this billboard all over the place.
Amanda says I needed a new friend after losing Wassa Jr. =(

Just in case you think all of Paris’s dead people are in the catacombs,
here’s an above-ground cemetery viewed from
the 56th floor of the Montparnasse Tower.

The obligatory Eiffel Tower view. =)

Amanda waits for sunset with a glass of wine.

I took this photo and showed it to Amanda—who was quite
confused about how I managed to get the Eiffel Tower
in the same photo twice. “It’s the wine,” I told her. =)
Just kidding…. There was a mirror adjacent to the window, though,
and I thought it might make an interesting perspective to get
this photo set up like I did. =) (The real Eiffel Tower is the right one,
the mirrored image is the left one.)

The Montparnasse Tower. There’s a public
observation area on the 56th floor and roof.
The blue lights change color every few seconds which
is kind of hypnotic to watch. =)

Just When You Think You've Seen It All....

Tierra checks out Rodrigo.

For my next hike, I asked my sister, Tierra, if she'd like to join me. She said yes, and after waiting around for the better part of an hour, she got to a good stopping point of her new favorite game (Aion) and got off the computer. But I got a lot done. I took a shower, had my mom buzz the hair off my head, and fixed a bug on AQ during the time it took my sister to get off the computer. Whew!

We headed out to the Irish Hills. If that sounds familiar, it's because I hiked those trails last year for the Hike-a-Thon.

It didn't take long before we saw it: a unicorn. Yes, a real, honest-to-goodness pinata unicorn attached to the railing of a bridge. What an unusual place to find a pinata! And a unicorn for that matter! On the back of it as attached a note explaining that his name was Rodrigo, the pinata unicorn, and that it was a "wish shelter." We were to write down a wish (a logbook and pencil were provided) then place your wish in the pinata through a slot that was cut into it. Kind of like a piggy bank for wishes.

How utterly cute and bizarre. Why was it left here? Who left it? How long were they going to leave it there? What would they do with the wishes once it was collected? The note on Rodrigo did have a website listed: www.NothingHappenedHere.org. I absolutely love the domain name, and I went to it, but it answered none of my questions. However, it did open a few new ones. The last post to their blog had a prominent title with Inga Swearingen in it--it's a name I recognize from my high school days. I had classes with her. It was a little surprising to go to this website and see a name from the past, but it appears to be a post about Inga, not by Inga.

So my sister wrote a wish--something she wouldn't let me see--and stuffed it into the slot in the unicorn's ass. (I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried!) Then I wrote out a wish, and in retaliation, I wouldn't let Tierra see it, and stuffed it into Rodrigo.

Directions taped to Rodrigo.

We continued hiking. Once again, I was checking up on letterboxes I had planted. I was amazed when I went to check on my first box and discovered the tree it had been hidden in had fallen over. Yeah, I know, trees fall over all the time, but I knew this tree. We were friends in a sense. It was a neat little box too, where I attached it to the end of a stick and threw it down a deep hole in the tree. To retrieve the box, you had to pull it out with the stick. That was no longer necessary, though--the split right down the middle and exposed all the way down to ground level. It must have been fairly recent too--the leaves on the tree were still all green and fresh. We had a lightning storm here a few days ago and some pretty strong winds and I wonder if perhaps it played a role in the tree's demise? I found no sign of my box, though. Alas, those things happen. *shrug*

My other letterbox was still doing well, but the logbook was full so I added a new one.

The next unexpected surprise--for me, at least--was finding a trail that I know did not exist last year because I actually looked for it last year! The trail showed up on a map so I had tried looking for it, but came to the conclusion that it must have been a trail that hadn't been built yet. It's definitely built now! Or at least part of it is. It didn't appear to go back as far as the map showed, so perhaps it's still a work in progress? The trail runs into a dirt road, though, and the map doesn't show a road at all, so I'm not entirely certain what was supposed to happen there.

My letterbox tree split in half!

On our way back, the trail goes behind the Coscto, and Tierra and I decided to follow a small path beat down to the Costco. It's not a named trail so far as I know, and did not appear to be official in any sense of the word, so we called it the "Costco Hot Dog Trail," and hiked down to Costco for a $1.50 dog and soda. =) I also got a berry smoothie. Delicious.

From here, Tierra walked back to her car and drove back to Mom's house. I, of course, walked back. =) But none of those miles will count towards the Hike-a-Thon. And if you haven't, it's not too late to sponsor me!

Thanks to my sponsors so far: Snowfire, Mathhead, dmc and gr, dbltall, JabberJoBob, speedsquare, di and her guy, the Evans Family, and my very own sister, Tierra. =) I'm now slightly more than halfway to my personal $500 goal, and our team (Amanda and I make up a team) are about halfway to our team goal as well ($515 out of our $1000 goal).

This might be the very first time I've ever used my "proof of visit."
I usually forget about it. =) The large building just above my knee
is Costco, which is where we'll end up hiking to. =)

The end of the Costco Hot Dog Trail--a happy ending if there ever was one. =)
Oh, yeah, and I've buzzed my head of all its hair. I'm ready for thru-hiking
El Camino de Santiago!

Let the Hike-A-Thon Begin!

I've been posting about my little adventure with the WTA work party last month, but I haven't really posted much about my hiking during the Hike-a-Thon. Mostly because I haven't been doing much hiking--so much to get done before my real hike gets started in France. =)

But finally, yesterday, I actually did some hiking. Nothing major. Basically, I wanted to check up on some of my letterboxes and at least get a few miles in.

Turns out, my few miles have had some interesting surprises along the way!

Let's start with this one:

Technically speaking, I wasn't "hiking" when I took this photo. I was walking along some railroad tracks here in my hometown of San Luis Obispo, headed to my mom's house when I saw this coyote. It's not every day I see one of these things. In fact, I wasn't even 100% certain this was a coyote because I'm so unfamiliar with them, but I knew it wasn't a cat and I knew it wasn't a dog. I suspected a coyote, though, and took this photo to look it up online. It appears that I was right. Ha! =) I have seen coyotes before--or at least suspected coyotes, but they've always been at night and as soon as they saw me, they ran off into the brush. This one was remarkably friendly and stood here just watching me, and in broad daylight no less! I hope nobody nearby has let their cat run loose.

But that was pretty exciting. It's my first coyote photo. (I took it two days ago, August 4th.) =) Yeah, I know, it's a little grainy, but it wouldn't let me get any closer for a better image. I'm just glad I could get a recognizable photo!

Now yesterday, I head out to Los Osos Oaks to check up on my letterboxes there. Actually, I already knew that three of the four boxes were missing and I wanted to replace them. I carved replacement stamps, but annoyingly, I couldn't find two of them. But I found one of the replacements I carved and an entirely new letterbox (a grasshopper), so I made a trip of it. =)

The trails in this part are in rather bad shape--trees have fallen across the trail that have been there for years and nobody has cut them out. I'm not sure who's responsible for maintaining the trails, but they aren't doing well. I'm not throwing stones, though--I have no idea what the situation is. California has some budget problems (maybe you've heard about them?) and for all I know, nobody is maintaining these trails. Unfortunately, if you sponsor me for the Hike-a-Thon, it won't help these trails. WTA supports Washington state trails, not California ones. But Washington trails need a little love too, so please sponsor me anyhow. =)

My favorite part of this hike was the bee hive. I've been watching this little bee hive for years--I went on a field trip here back in my college years for a natural history course and our teacher (Hi, Mr. Ruppert! but I know you'll probably never read this) pointed it out to us in 1994. When he pointed it out, though, there were no bees. Just honeycombs and it appeared the hive had been abandoned. It stayed this way for probably the next ten years, then during a visit, I went to look in the hole in the tree to show a friend the old bee hive and--yikes!--there were bees! It wasn't so abandoned anymore!

A couple of years ago, the tree the hive was in fell over across the trail. Due to the lack of maintenance on the trails, the tree is still across the trail blocking it. It's easy to step over, though, so it's not a big deal. If it was me logging off trees, I'm not sure I'd mess with this one. I'd imagine cutting up a tree with an active bee hive in it would likely piss off a lot of bees, and anyhow, I like the bees. I don't really want to disturb them. I hope nobody ever cuts this tree up--at least not until the bees decide to leave. I'm a little surprised that the bees stuck around after the tree fell. I'd imagine that was quite a shock for them and perhaps they'd think their home wasn't secure. But no, they're still hanging out in the tree.

They've been there for at least five years now, and I always like to visit "my bees" whenever I'm here. It's the only place I know of where I can visit a bee hive in the wild. =)

So I took my friend, Jenny, out to see my bees--but this time I decided to get some photos so I could tell y'all about the bees. Naturally, I don't want to get too close to the hive, and my first photos didn't turn out very well. I'm not sure if you've heard it or not, but bees are kind of small and don't photograph well from a distance.

I inched closer and the photos were getting better, but it was late in the afternoon and the bees were in the shade. It would have helped to get a light on them, so I decided to try using my flash. I don't really know a whole lot about bees, though, and worried that a flash might rile them up. Jenny got quite a ways back--I think she was a little nervous around so many bees to begin with, and I asked her if she thought a flash would cause a swarm.

"I wouldn't do it," she told me.

Yeah, well, I would. =)

She went off--probably not an unwise decision--but I suggested that she prepare to run.... "Just in case."

Then I crept back closer to the bees, turned on the flash, and took a photo. The bees didn't seem at all bothered by the flash and kept buzzing around like I wasn't around. I took another one, then looked back but I couldn't see Jenny behind the trees anymore, but I heard her thwacking around behind them. And an evil idea crept over me.....

"Run, Jenny! RUN!" I shouted.

She didn't seem to take my exclamations seriously, however, and I walked over to where she was looking around trees for spots to hide a letterbox.

"You know, if that was a real swarm, you'd probably be dead by now," I told her. =)

Ironically, the bees do have one downside. I haven't been able to admire the honeycombs in the tree ever since they came back. They were kind of interesting to look at, but the bees have abandoned this location before. They could still do it again. (And I'll probably miss the little buggers when they do!)

For anyone who's ever found my letterbox series at this park in the past, I've updated the directions to take you past my little hive. (If you're highly allergic to bee stings, though, maybe you should stay away. They've never stung me, but there's a lot of them out there and it'll likely just be a matter of time before they do!)

Wassa Jr.

With the tragic loss of Wassa Jr., I wanted to do something special for the little guy, and I figured what better way to do that than to celebrate his life in photos! So here are some of my favorite Wassa Jr. moments....

 

Goodbye, little buddy....

All donations in memory of Wassa Jr can be sent to sponsor Ryan in WTA's Hike-a-Thon.